The Indian telecom sector had a robust second half of 2021. Many contingency measures were announced that helped the telcos and the sector and there was a rate hike at the end to boost revenues. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has just released the report ‘Yearly Performance Indicators Indian Telecom Sector’ (sixth edition for 2021).
According to the report, the monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) for wireless (full mobility) services was Rs 108.40. The minutes of use (MoU) per subscriber per month – Wireless (Full Mobility) service was 834 minutes.
The average wireless data revenue per data subscriber per month for wireless services was Rs 139.94 and the average revenue per subscriber per GB of wireless data during the year was Rs 9.96. TRAI report said the average wireless data usage per data subscriber per month was 14.04 GB.
Positive for the sector here is that the ARPU per month of wireless services rose to 108.40 in 2021 from Rs 94.87 in 2020. Even the MoU per subscriber per month rose from 759 minutes in 2020 to 834 minutes in 2021.
However, there was a decrease in total gross revenue in 2021 compared to 2020. In 2021, total gross revenue for the sector in 2021 was Rs 2,68,580 crore, which was 2.05% lower than Rs 2,74,208 crore. in 2020.
Total number of telecom subscribers at the end of 2021 according to TRAI report
The TRAI report suggests there were a total of 1,178.41 million subscribers (wireless + fixed) at the end of 2021. Of these, 655.20 million users were urban subscribers and 523.21 million users were rural subscribers. Private operators’ market share was 89.41%, while PSU operators held 10.86% of the market.
of the total telecom subscribers (1,178.41 million), wireless subscribers were 1,154.62 million and fixed subscribers were 23.79 million. In the wireless segment there was a growth of 0.07% in terms of the number of subscribers compared to 2020. But in the wireline segment there was a growth of 18.63% compared to 2020. That is certainly because more and more people fixed broadband connections set up in their homes and offices.
Total internet subscribers were 829.30 million at the end of 2021, a positive change of 4.29% from the prior year. Of these, 802.72 million users were wireless internet subscribers and 26.58 million users were fixed internet subscribers.
The number of paying subscribers active with the country’s four DTH (Direct-to-Home) operators was 68.52 million at the end of 2021.
